Euc. I’ll warrant ye, I must keep a House like an Emperor for your sake, you old Sorceress? Huzzy, I’ll have every Cobweb taken care of, and preserv’d.
I’m very poor, I confess; but I patiently bear what the Gods lay upon me.—— Get ye in, and make fast the door; I’ll be back presently. Take a special care you don’t let e’re a Soul come within the doors; and that they mightn’t pretend an Excuse to borrow Fire, I’ll ha’ ye put it all out: If there be any now, out with’t in an instant. If they want Water, tell ’em the Pump is dry; if they wou’d borrow a Knife, an Axe, a Mortar, or a Pestil, as Neighbours us’d to do, tell ’em the House was robb’d, and they’re all stolen. ’Sbud, I’ll ha’ no body set a step within my House when I’m gone; therefore if Good-luck her self shou’d come, I charge ye keep her out.
Sta. Troth, you needn’t fear her coming; for were she at the Threshold, she’d ne’re come in.
Euc. Hold your prating Tongue, and get ye in.
Sta. To please you, I’ll do both.
Euc. And besure you secure the Door with two great Bolts: I’ll be here instantly. Exit Staphila.
Euclio alone.
O, I’m wretchedly perplex’d that I’m forc’d to go out a doors now; and troth, it goes sore against my mind; however, ’tis upon sure grounds. For now’s the time for our Officer to distribute the Money to the Poor: Now if I shou’d be negligent, and not be among the Beggars, I’m afraid the World wou’d presently conclude, that I had got Gold at home. For ’tis n’t likely such a poor Fellow as I pretend to be, shou’d so little value Money, as not to be there. Notwithstanding my restless care of concealing this Gold, it strangely runs in my Head, that all the World knows of it, and every body seems to be more obliging, and to complement me more than ever. They meet me, stay me, embrace me, enquire after my Health, my Welfare, and every thing.—— Well, I’ll go, and be back again as soon as possibly. Exit.
Here we see a considerable deal of the strange Nature of this old miserable Fellow; and this Character he has carry’d through the whole Play: But to see his Humour a little more perfectly, take part of the fourth Scene of the second Act; where the Servant Strobulus and the two Cooks are discoursing about this Miser.
Strobulus and Congrio.